Here I was thinking that a
child’s innermost fear is the confession of his or her sexuality to his
parents/guardian but each time I come back to Africa, not that I’ve been
outside Africa; I mean when I wake up from my dreams of being me and notice
that my parents are striving hard for my wedding with Ms. Stethoscope, I only
gulp and hope for, if ever I muster courage to confess, “we accept you for who
you are” and try to erase from my thoughts the most likely “you’re a disgrace
to this family.”
I still remember the ‘when I
grow up, I’ll be… days’ when all we never read or heard of about profession
were rap/music, acting, poetry among other celebrity-linked jobs. Most families
had and still have the solid four status-linked jobs governing the will of
their children; the doctor, the lawyer, the nurse and the pilot.
Not too long ago, a friend
told me about her friend who wants to be a doctor for her father, a lawyer for
her mother and a singer for herself. We guffawed about this for long but I kept
asking myself, is it a child’s responsibility to live the unfulfilled life of
his/her parent?
We have dreams too and
leaving them unfulfilled will only mean a gory midlife crisis with bitter
toppings. Our frustrations will in the future be lashed out on our children and
what do we end up to be; cranky old miserable parents.
I was very fortunate to meet
the mother of Opherlia Dzidzornu, the fastest rising young actress in Ghana
now. I was shocked when her mom told me her daughter has been acting since age
5 and she is in JHS but has to even do home school for now because of her
career. I didn’t hesitate to ask her some questions.
Are you sure you are a
Ghanaian?
Yes I’m a Ghanaian.
Wow, is your husband a
Ghanaian too?
Yes, he’s also a Ghanaian…
So there are some parents
after all who actually believe in talent and would go the extreme to harness
the potential of their children and give them all the support they desire.
Maybe and just maybe, if
parents of our today celebrities had been supportive enough and monitored the
works of their wards, our music for example, today, would be serene and free
from f***, p****,d***, b**** and A**.
I believe in talent for many
reasons but the most important are talent as a tool for national development
and talent as a tool for self gratification. Parents need to understand and
wait with their ‘what do you want to be?’ questions until after a child has
discovered his/her talent. Do not impose; parent, lest the child becomes
rebellious.
There are so many things that
need to change if Ghana truly desires progress especially our educational
system. There should be professional training and schooling for children
immediately they discover their talent but all will be in vain if parents do
not understand and even if they do, would not listen.
Talent runs this era and unemployment
can be battled with a good talents/entertainment industry but this will be a
topic for future articles.
I’ve always wondered what
happened to Kalybos when the lights went down after coming out to his parents
about becoming a rapper in the Airtel advert. Hmm, mom, if you ever get to read
this know that in future, I will fool to make ends meet.
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